The launch of an RCMP investigation into a Tory staffer for political interference in access to information has again exposed the secretive practice of flagging sensitive requests for scrutiny by ministerial aides. A report this week by Suzanne Legault, Canada's information commissioner, was highly critical of a so-called "purple file" process at Public Works.

An access request in 2009 from The Canadian Press was tagged sensitive, put into a purple-coloured folder, labelled "media," then handed over to Sebastien Togneri, a political aide to then-minister Christian Paradis. In face-to-face meetings with compliant bureaucrats, and in terse emails, Togneri ordered the release package withheld, then heavily censored, even though he had no legal authority to do so.

We have always suspected such a file, but this exposes the practice.

The commissioner's report laid part of the blame on a "drift" in the "purple file" process, which was set up under the Tories to alert the ministers to potentially embarrassing requests made under the Access to Information Act. At Public Works, that alert function had morphed into a political vetting machine ...

1 comment:

Yikes. I wonder whether anyone ever, in these affair, says, "hang on, guys, do you think maybe it's wrong to break the law?" I mean, you can't even set up a system like that without being fully aware that it's illegal.